Media Tablets and Beyond

Consumerization, falling prices and "bring your own device" policies will drive more tablets into the enterprise, where a melange of mobile platforms and security challenges will be the norm. In 2012, says Gartner, assign a team to explore how best to exploit the devices. Evaluate your strategy and adjust as necessary.

Tablets, cloud computing, enterprise app stores and extreme low-energy servers are among the 10 technology trends that Gartner expects to be the most strategic in 2012. How to approach such a list? Most important is to ask yourself who in your organization is examining each trend, Gartner analyst David Cearley said in a Jan. 10 Webinar. In 2012 expect to see mobile define the user experience; social networking and contextual experiences to influence apps and interfaces; the cloud to become still more mainstream; and new strategies for managing the heaps of data coming from once-unimaginable sources. Speaking to the latter, Cearley offered the analogy of the frog in the stockpot, warning CIOs not to sit contentedly as the industry heats up around them. "Don't just throw money at it," Cearley advised. "But starting this year, do some analysis about where you can deliver on it." Remain alert and forman actionable plan: This seems sage advice for keeping out of the soup on all counts.